


the substance from which i am made

by elumish



Series: Werewolves 101 [20]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Canonical Character Death, Gen, The Hale Fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-25 00:11:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6172279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elumish/pseuds/elumish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles wants to give the Hale boy a hug.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stiles

**Author's Note:**

> This is set immediately post-fire. Every chapter will be from a different point of view. The title is from a Jorge Luis Borges quote.

Stiles wants to give the Hale boy a hug.

He’s not allowed to, because his dad told him not to, told him that the Hale boy is sad because his family is gone and that Stiles shouldn’t bother him because Stiles is usually happy and that might make him more sad. And that sometimes sad people just want to be left alone so they can figure out how to be sad.

That doesn’t really make sense to him, because whenever he’s sad he wants his mom and his dad, and when he can’t have his mom or his dad he wants Scott, and if the Hale boy can’t have his mom or dad maybe Stiles could be his Scott.

But his dad said no, and he listens to his dad usually except when his mom tells him something else or when he thinks his mom would tell him something else or when his dad tells him to make his bed because it’s dumb to make your bed when you’re just going to sleep in it again.

But he’s going to listen to his dad on this people his dad knows people and Stiles has never been very good at people because people lie and do weird things and make decisions without explaining why they’re making those decisions, and Stiles is always going to explain everything so people know what’s going on.

The Hale woman is talking to Stiles’s dad, and he can hear that their uncle is hurt, and they’re not sure if he’s going to be okay because werewolves don’t like fire. She’s saying that the land hurts now and so do the trees, and Stiles doesn’t understand how land can hurt or trees because he learned that only people have things that can hurt because he was reading the N encyclopedia and there’s something called nerves and plants don’t have nerves but they can see the sun and Stiles is still trying to figure out how that works.

He hopes that the Hale woman figures it out first, though, because she’s saying that they’re going to need to leave but the town loves the Hales and will be sad when there are fewer Hales so they’ll be sadder when there are no Hales. And if the Hales are sad then the town can make them less sad like they did when there was that car accident and those people were hurt and the town made pie for the not-hurt people so they would be less sad because everyone likes pie.

The Hale boy is making sad noises now, not like crying but noises like when you fall off your bike and everything hurts but it’s not just pain but also wanting a hug and wanting it to stop hurting and wanting your mom. But Stiles doesn’t know how to make it stop hurting because he doesn’t think there’s a way to unset things on fire, and if there isn’t he wants to figure out how to do it because what happened is stupid. And Stiles can’t give him a hug, either, because his dad said no, so he gets up from the chair he’s sitting in and walks over to the chair next to him.

The Hale boy doesn’t look at him, but he’s older than Stiles thought he was, or maybe he just looks older, and there’s soot across his face, and Stiles knows he’s a werewolf and there was a fire and the soot must smell like fire and he must not like that so Stiles licks his finger and wipes the soot off his cheek. Now it’s on his finger, and he doesn’t want to get it on his clothes because then his dad will get mad at him and his dad doesn’t need to be more mad because he’s already mad because of the fire and sad because his mom is sick, so he sticks his finger in his mouth to get the soot off.

The Hale boy touches his cheek, and Stiles realizes he basically just licked the boy’s face. “Sorry.”

The boy moves his hand back down, but he’s still staring at the wall, and even though he stopped making sad noises he still doesn’t look okay. “I was going to give you a hug because Scott gives me a hug when I’m sad, but my dad said I can’t give you a hug because it’ll make you more sad. But you can hold my hand if you want.” He holds his hand out, and it’s the hand that he licked, but the boy takes his hand without looking away from the wall. “I was reading Spiderman before, and Spiderman is with Mary Jane, and she’s really pretty.” The boy closes his eyes. “Lydia is really pretty like that, too. They both have red hair, too. Danny is really pretty, too. People don’t say that boys are pretty, but I think Danny is pretty. Scott isn’t pretty, though. Scott is just Scott. You’re pretty, too, but you’re old. Not as old as my dad, or Scott’s dad, but they’re really old. I don’t like Scott’s dad. He’s mean. He tells me I talk too much. Maybe I talk too much. Do you want me to stop talking?”

The hand holding his flinches. It hurts a little. Stiles doesn’t say that. He thinks that’ll make the boy more sad. “I don’t have to stop talking. I can keep talking. I’m good at talking. I once talked Emily into letting her fish go because fish tanks are evil because they’re too small, and you’re only supposed to keep fish in aquariums. Except for goldfish, I think, because goldfish don’t remember things, but that still seems mean, because you’re keeping them in a small thing and they only don’t know it because they’re bad at remembering things. My mom is bad at remembering things too, sometimes, but we pretend that she’s not because it makes her sad.”

The boy opens his eyes and starts staring at the wall again. The door to his dad’s office opens and the Hale woman walks out with his dad. She looks at the two of them. Stiles thinks maybe he wasn’t supposed to be holding the Hale boy’s hand because maybe that’s like hugging, but his dad never said no holding hands, and he thinks that letting go might hurt the boy, so he doesn’t let go.

The Hale woman says, “We have to go now.”

The Hale boy doesn’t look at her. Stiles says, “I can keep holding your hand if you want.”

Stiles’s dad says, “No, Stiles, they have to go.”

The Hale woman says, “We’re going to go see Uncle Peter. We don’t need to go back to the house. We’re not going back to the house.” The boy curls in on himself more, and his grip gets tight on Stiles’s hand again. It hurts. “It wasn’t your fault. None of what happened was your fault.” The Hale boy stares past her at the wall. “Derek, look at me.” Her voice is scary now, and vibratey, and her eyes are red, and the boy makes a sad noise and looks at her. “I know that this is hard and frightening and we’re going to need to figure out how to do this, but you have to get up now.”

The boy doesn’t seem like he’s going to stand up, so Stiles stands up, still holding on to the boy’s hand, and a second later the boy uncurls himself off of the chair and stands, too, and the Hale woman looks like she’s crying but adults don’t cry so Stiles isn’t sure. She walks over and gives the boy a hug, and Stiles guesses it must be okay for her to give him a hug because she’s like his mom even though she’s not his mom, and the boy doesn’t do anything but his hand doesn’t get tighter on Stiles’s hand again.

And then she lets go and crouches down in front of Stiles, and her eyes aren’t red anymore but her face is wet. “Thank you.”

Stiles nods. “My dad said he’s sad and when I’m sad and I would want someone to hold my hand if I was sad.”

She ruffles his hair and stands up. “You’re a good kid. Derek and I have to go now.”

Stiles lets go of the boy’s hand, but the boy keeps holding on. Stiles isn’t sure why, because he has someone to give him a hug now, so he says, “You can come back later when you’re less sad and I’ll give you a hug if you want.”

After a second, the boy lets go. The woman puts an arm around him. They walk out of the station. Stiles’s dad looks at him. “They’re going away, son. I don’t think they’re coming back.”

That’s okay, Stiles decides. Maybe one day he’ll go find them and give him a hug.


	2. Laura

Laura’s not okay.

She’s alpha, which was supposed to be a happy occasion, but it was also supposed to happen in forty years or so when her mother died, and she doesn’t know how to be alpha, not really, not when her entire pack is dead except for Derek and Uncle Peter. And Uncle Peter is in the hospital and they don’t know if he’ll make it, and Derek is basically catatonic, and Laura’s an adult but she doesn’t know how to be an _adult_.

So no, Laura’s not okay.

Which doesn’t really matter, because she has to be, because the territory is fracturing and they’re not going to be able to stay in it much longer. Because it’s been theirs forever, but their family is gone, and she’s not going to be able to go back there.

“We can do this later if you need.”

Laura looks up at Sheriff Stilinski. “Sorry. No, I’m fine. I’m planning on leaving the territory as soon as we can—as soon as Uncle Peter is up to it—because we can’t stay, so I’d like to get this done with as quickly as possible.”

He nods. “Do you have any idea how Katherine Argent may have gotten past the defenses on your property? Your mother discussed them with me when I took this position, and they seemed extensive.”

Laura manages to restrain her wince, but just barely. “They are. They were. And I don’t—there are things nobody outside of the family should have known the full details of, not enough to get past without one of us letting them in. And ash—we should have known there was mountain ash that close to the house long before she got to it.”

His lips thin as he presses them together. “I hate to ask this, but is there any chance that anyone on the inside would have let her in?”

Laura temper flares, and she tamps down on it, hard, in a way she hasn’t had to since she was a child just after her first change, because she’s an alpha now and she can’t afford to let anything slip, not anymore. And glowing red eyes around law enforcement officers with guns tends not to go over well, according to—

“No.” She swallows, softens her voice. “No, nobody would let her in.”

“Are you sure? Somebody could have let something slip.”

She shakes her head. “We had an order from the alpha. From my mom.” She hears the voice of someone young, a child, and she twists in her chair to see the Sheriff’s son talking to Derek. It’s not clear if Derek’s listening, but the low hurt noise he was making has stopped, which is a good sign at the very least. It was painful to hear from him, her baby brother so hurt by what happened. Basically catatonic. “I’d like to get Derek out of here soon. We need to go see Uncle Peter.”

The Sheriff nods. “Of course. We may need to call you back in to testify later, so we will be in touch with you, but you’re free to go.”

“Thank you, Sheriff.”

“And, uh, Laura?” She nods, half-listening so she can listen to Derek, make sure he doesn’t start making that sound again. “I know that you’re leaving California, but I want you to know that, if you need help, you can come to me. Your mother told me that, if anything ever happened to my wife and me, she would look after Stiles for me, as a friend of the town, and the same is extended to you. I know you’re an adult, but even adults need help sometimes, and there’s no shame in asking.”

Laura chokes down a sob because of course her mother would offer that, of course she would. “Thank you.”

He stands, offering her his hand, and she stands and takes it, shaking it, because humans are weird like that. “I truly am sorry for your loss. The town is less without your family.”

“Thank you.” She looks back at Derek again, and he’s curled in on himself, and she doesn’t know how to help him, and she hates being alpha. But she has to help him, so she walks out of the office and towards them.

The boy is holding Derek’s hand, or really Derek is holding the boy’s, given how tight his grip needs to be, and she really hopes he isn’t hurting the boy. Stiles. That’s his name. She looks at Derek. “We have to go now.”

Derek doesn’t react, doesn’t look away from the wall, and that’s bad. Stiles tells him, “I can keep holding your hand if you want.” Which at least means the boy initiated the handholding, so Derek wasn’t forcing it on him. She really isn’t certain of Derek’s state of mind right now, but at least there’s that.

Sheriff Stilinski clears his throat from next to her. “No, Stiles, they have to go.”

“We’re going to go see Uncle Peter. We don’t need to go back to the house. We’re not going back to the house.” Derek flinches, hard, and she sees the kid flinch a little, too, probably from Derek’s grip getting too tight. Which is a bit of a problem, because Derek could easily break the kid’s hands. A lot of small bones, and it’s a human, and a kid, and the sheriff’s kind, and this could go badly. Which means she needs to talk him down, and fast. “It wasn’t your fault. None of what happened was your fault.”

Derek still doesn’t look at her, and she’s hit with something between sadness and frustration, because they’re the only ones left, and _goddamn it Derek_ , because she can’t do this by herself. So she pulls in a breath and calls up the Alpha even though this is probably a bad idea because he’s fragile as fuck right now, and snaps, “Derek, look at me.” Derek’s eyes flick to her. “I know that this is hard and scary and we’re going to need to figure out how to do this, but you have to get up now.”

Derek doesn’t move, until the kid stands up; Derek drops his feet down on the floor and lurches forward, still hanging on to the boy’s hand like the kid is Cora and Derek is trying to convince her that she can’t go running yet because her first shift isn’t going to start coming for another month, and oh God, Cora is gone. They’re all gone.

She walks over towards Derek, wrapping her arms around him because he’s her brother, he’s pack, he’s the only thing she has left if Uncle Peter dies, or if he doesn’t wake up, or if he’s never the same again. Derek doesn’t hug her back, and he smells like so much goddamn pain and makes a hurt noise in his throat.

So she steps away, crouching down in front of the sheriff’s kid. He stares at her, and she doesn’t see any fear in his eyes. Which is amazing, considering how scary she probably just looked. “Thank you.”

The kid nods. “My dad said he’s sad and when I’m sad and I would want someone to hold my hand if I was sad.”

Jesus. She’s about to start crying again, because that’s the kind of thing pack would say, transference of comfort, so she makes herself just ruffle his hair and stand. “You’re a good kid. Derek and I have to go now.”

The kid’s hand opens, but Derek keeps clinging on. She’s about to order him to let go, even though she hates to do this, even though she’s afraid that every order she gives is going to break him a little bit more because that’s their mother’s job and she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing, but the kid says, “You can come back later when you’re less sad and I’ll give you a hug if you want.”

Unbelievably, that’s what makes Derek let go, and Laura wraps her arm around Derek’s waist; Derek leans against her, and she absorbs his weight, leading him out of the room before he can go back to the kid. Because for whatever reason he’s gotten attached to him, and she needs to pull Derek away before he gets any more attached because he’s already lost basically everything he cares about.

The sheriff says something once they’re outside, but she doesn’t listen because she’s focused on Derek. He’s making hurt noises again, shaking against her, and he’s going to need her to be strong, so she girds herself and decides that she’s not going to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want someone to write a story where both of Stiles's parents die and the Hales take him in (and then have no Hale fire, or have one that doesn't kill all of them) and then have it be a story about human Stiles being raised by pack!Hales.


End file.
